


The Lake House

by theramblinrose



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Kitchen Sex, MSR, after Irresistible, fast and loose with canon, quality time together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:29:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24310585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose
Summary: MSR.  After closing out a particularly disturbing case where a murderer abducted Scully, Mulder and Scully just need the chance to leave work behind and get away together, for a long weekend, to unwind and enjoy each other’s company.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 19
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

AN: This little story could be read independently without any problem, but it’s also following after my story “Irresistible.” 

I own nothing from The X-Files.

I hope that you enjoy! Please let me know what you think! 

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“Mulder, it’s freezing!” Dana Scully declared as soon as she was inside the door of the cabin—an acquaintance’s lake house that he was letting them borrow for their long weekend.

The declaration was less of a critique and more of an observation. Mulder shivered, too, as he stepped inside the cabin behind her. She scrambled for a light switch and, within moments, the cabin was illuminated by the slightly dingy overhead lighting. It wasn’t Buckingham Palace, but it would definitely be good enough for what they both needed.

“That’s not a problem, Scully,” Mulder offered. “There’s a fireplace. I’ll start a fire.”

“What about the rest of the house?” Scully asked. 

She’d insisted on carrying the groceries in—enough food to keep them well-fed for their entire long weekend—and she took them to the counter in the kitchen. 

It was a small lake house with an open design. There was a living area, complete with kitchen, and one room, off to the side, which was the bedroom with a connected bathroom.

“What are you worried about, Scully?” Mulder teased. “That I won’t keep you warm enough in the bedroom? I’ve never heard any complaints before.” 

“Well, we’ve got heating in both our apartments,” Scully offered.

The teasing only made Mulder laugh to himself. He dropped their bags in the bedroom and came back into the main part of the house. The fireplace was clean, and there was already a stack of wood waiting on him. Mulder made pretty quick work of arranging the wood and, using the kindling that was already there for him, getting a fire started. By the time he’d finished starting the fire, Scully had put away most of the groceries in the small kitchen area.

“Who was it that you said is letting us stay here?” Scully asked.

“A friend I’ve known since college,” Mulder said. “I told him we could use somewhere to just, you know, escape for a few days.”

It hadn’t been very long since Scully had come very close to dying in a coma after she’d been abducted by a madman and gone missing. Nearly losing her had been a catalyst for Mulder to admit his feelings to her, and to fully accept them himself. She’d echoed his sentiments and their relationship had started from there—slowly at first. Mulder had taken care of Scully as she’d regained her physical strength and found herself ready to come back to work. During the time since they’d confessed their feelings for one another, they had enjoyed everything from middle-schoolesque flirtation to flirting with a few of each other’s most timidly confessed desires.

Mulder would like to say there was a firmly drawn line between their newly-found, and carefully-tended, romantic partnership, and their dedicated work partnership, but the truth of the matter was that the line tended to blur a great deal. They’d already informed the FBI that they were involved—fraternization, of course, though not prohibited, was frowned upon—but they had yet to come clean with all the ramifications of their involvement.

They had only just discovered some of those ramifications for themselves, and they were still working on coming fully to terms with everything. It appeared that, quite by accident, they were on route to becoming parents before many people would consider that their relationship had even had enough time to truly prove itself.

Mulder didn’t need any kind of proof, though, for what he felt. He believed Scully, too, when she said that she felt the same. Everything was new and, perhaps, moving at breakneck speeds for them, but they were both comfortable and confident in what they’d found. On the one hand, every smile he brought to Scully’s lips felt new. Every kiss felt like the first one. Every time he touched her, there was the same thrill as the first time they’d been together in her apartment. On the other hand, Mulder found a certain comfort in Scully’s presence that made him feel like they’d been together since the dawn of time, and like they were the kind of couple about which people wrote romantic stories that taught the meaning of true love and how to achieve a long-lasting relationship.

Still, the demanding, exhausting, and sometimes emotionally straining nature of the work that they did day-in and day-out—often working through weekends and holidays—coupled with the stresses and strains of life, the new demands of a relationship, and the realization that they were embarking on something else, entirely, that neither of them had planned to do just yet, meant that there were times when Scully and Mulder both required a break.

That was where the lake house came in, and the demands they’d made at work for a three-day weekend for which the time could be pulled from all the other weekends they’d missed while working cases that didn’t respect the constructed idea of a forty-hour week. 

Just the day before, they’d put a man in jail who had been dismembering women’s bodies to gather their hair and fingernails as trophies. The case had been mentally and emotionally exhausting, and any normal person would need a break to breathe and gather their thoughts after dealing with such a case. Things had been made much worse, though, when the killer had kidnapped Scully. She’d been physically unharmed, except for a few scrapes, bruises, and some sore muscles, but Mulder could tell that she simply needed a break. They’d wrapped things up with the case that morning, requested their leave, and driven straight through the afternoon and early evening. Scully said she needed time to talk to him about everything that had been weighing heavily on her mind, but she needed to gather her thoughts. Here, she could gather and talk to her heart’s content. She could relax and breathe in some fresh mountain air. 

And they could both leave the phones off their hooks.

Mulder walked up behind Scully in the kitchen. She was unpacking the contents of a brown paper bag onto the long counter so that she could sort the items and put them away in places she designated fitting for each of them. Mulder fitted his body behind hers, and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his head on her shoulder and kissed her neck. He saw her smile and he smiled to himself, squeezing her gently. 

She turned around, and he let her complete the turn, but he didn’t back up far enough to fully break the embrace or to let her escape him in the kitchen area. 

“What do you want for dinner, Mulder?” Scully asked.

Mulder smirked at her. 

“Are you on the menu?” He asked. She rolled her eyes at him and did her best to look annoyed at his immature response to a serious inquiry. Despite her best efforts, though, she couldn’t entirely hide the flash of pleasure that ran across her lips or the light blush of pink that came to her cheeks. Mulder smiled at her and stole a kiss that she playfully begrudged him before giving in with great enthusiasm. 

“What if I’m dessert?” Scully asked when the kiss broke. Her breathing was elevated, already, to a point that told Mulder she was no more interested in a meal than he was, not if there were other offers on the table. He kissed her again and, while he did, his fingers found the button her pants. She moaned at him, in satisfaction as he popped the button and slipped the zipper down carefully.

“That’s fine,” Mulder said. “As long as I get to eat dessert first.” He smiled at her. She wasn’t likely to protest too much, and she certainly wouldn’t put a lot of fight behind it. Her pupils were already dilated, and the blood rushing to her face had pinkened it. “I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth tonight, Scully.” 

He slipped his hands around her and, sliding them into her pants and beneath her underwear, he cupped her ass. She clutched at him, pushing his t-shirt upward. Like her, he’d changed into something more casual before the drive. Deciding that she was as sold on this as he was, Mulder freed his hands again and quickly shucked his shirt. His bare chest, shoulders, and arms, seemed to create a place for Scully’s hands to practically run a marathon. He didn’t ask if she minded, but when he moved to push her pants and underwear down, she didn’t fight him. Instead, she simply helped him by toeing off her shoes and stepped out of everything as soon as her garments hit the floor. He lifted her, placing her easily on the counter in front of him. With a little less grace than that employed by heroines in most movies, she swept the groceries to the side to make room.

“Too cold?” Mulder asked, seeing her skin pucker as she chose to rid herself of her shirt and give him full, unimpeded access to her body. Her only response to his question was to wrap her arms around his neck and to kiss him, biting his bottom lip as he pulled away. 

The fire had either knocked off the chill in the room, or something else had, because it seemed to be the least of Scully’s concerns. Just to be sure, though, and to help a little with the plan to get Scully to relax, entirely, on this trip, Mulder made quick work of dipping his head and letting his tongue and teeth work their way down her body. He held her hips, and she braced herself on the counter. With her eyes closed in anticipation of pleasure, she was more beautiful than usual. Mulder had always considered himself a pretty able lover, but he could admit to himself that he put more effort into things, when it came to Scully, than he’d ever used before. 

Scully gently hooked her knees over his shoulder. There was something he found so enticing about the feeling of her heels as they pressed into his back—pressing harder as her feelings intensified and she grew closer to a ledge. She squirmed, lifting herself toward him, begging more as he worked to give her everything he could—everything she needed and wanted—with his lips and tongue. With two fingers coming to his aid, he managed to coax her to let go, entirely, and he continued his teasing until he was sure that she’d ridden the intense wave of pleasure as far as she could. 

She dropped her legs from over his shoulders and sat up as he pulled her to him, his hands around her ribcage. The half-drunk expression on her face was reward enough for anything he could do for her, but the passionate kiss and the quiet declaration of “thank you” that she panted out to him was the best payment he could ask for. 

Scully immediately worked at the button his pants, and Mulder held her hips, making sure she didn’t slip from the counter—especially since it was, at this point, a little more slippery than it had been before. When he was free, she stroked him, her eyes locked on his. There was an intensity in her eyes. She wanted to see his pleasure. He let her. He showed her, entirely, how much he liked having her there—having her hand wrapped around him. And she helped him, as he rearranged her position, so that he could bring them together.

The angle was, apparently, a good one for both of them. More than anything, Mulder liked that it let them keep their eyes on one another. Scully liked seeing, for herself, that he was enjoying himself—that he liked her and what she could do to him with her body. He liked, in particular, the sensation of watching her come completely undone as he hit all the right buttons, at the right times, to meet her moaned requests and, finally, to bring her to the moment where she would always throw her head back, eyes closed and face drawn up in what he would have believed to have been pain, as everything culminated at the peak of pleasure.

When he felt Scully’s muscles squeeze him, and pulse around him, in response to her pleasure, Mulder followed right after her. There was no fighting it. For a moment, as they both came down from the experience, Scully curled herself upward and, wrapping her arms and legs around him, she hugged him. He leaned into her, bringing them as close as nature allowed. He kissed the side of her face and her shoulder. She was slick with sweat. She pulled away enough to kiss his lips. This time it was gentle and appreciative, but much of the earlier hunger was quelled. 

This was the afterglow. These were the few moments where they would be naturally, magnetically, drawn to one another. They would feed on each other’s kisses, gentle caresses, and loving affection. This intense drive to simply be close to each other would pass, but the warm feeling of enjoying each other’s presence would linger through the evening and the weekend. 

After a few moments of nuzzling, kissing, and simply holding one another, Mulder could feel his heart rate returning to normal, and he could hear beyond the blood pumping wildly by his ears. He laughed quietly to himself at the thought that flitted across his mind. Without hearing it, Scully laughed, too, as though their animalistic connection, at the moment, made her able to read his thoughts.

“What?” She asked quietly. 

“Are you still cold, Scully?” He asked. 

“Mulder…” she responded; amusement heavy in her voice. 

“I told you I’d warm you up,” Mulder continued, nonplussed. “I’ll make sure you stay warm all weekend, too. You don’t have to worry about freezing.” 

“Speaking of freezing,” Scully said, “I’m starting to get cold.” 

Mulder knew this was a genuine request for her clothes, so he simply helped her off the counter, putting her gently back on her feet. Rather than immediately dress in her clothes again, though, she gathered up what she’d been wearing and padded away toward the bedroom. Mulder pulled his own pants up, gathered up his shirt, and followed her. She stepped into the bathroom, found towels and washcloths, and cleaned herself up. Mulder watched, openly and unashamed, and he accepted the cloth when she passed it to him. 

“What did you decide you wanted for dinner?” Scully asked, stepping back into the bedroom and burrowing through her bag. She came up with comfortable pajamas and Mulder followed suit, locating his own comfortable clothes.

“Let’s do the sandwiches tonight,” Mulder said. “Something quick and easy. We’ll watch a movie. Tomorrow we can clean the grill and have the burgers or the steaks. Is that OK with you?” 

“It’s fine with me, Mulder,” Scully said. “But—I know one thing.” 

“What’s that?” Mulder asked. Scully smirked at him. 

“We’re going to have to clean the kitchen first,” she said. She came toward him, seeking affection, and he willingly gathered her into his arms. She rested her head against his chest and sighed as he rubbed his hands up and down her back. “You know, Mulder, we’ve never been away together. Not like this.” 

“Yeah, well…I think we’re doing pretty good at it,” Mulder offered. 

“I don’t have any complaints,” Scully agreed.

“And just think, we’ve got a long weekend to improve on our form,” Mulder teased. 

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AN: I hope you enjoyed the first piece of this. I haven’t really decided, yet, if I’m going to do more where they get into some of their discussions about Scully’s experiences/feelings in “Irresistible” or not. I don’t know if there’s any interest in that. If there’s some interest, I may be adding another piece or two.

I’m new to The X-Files. I’m only in season 3. If you haven’t read any of my other MSR stories, I have a few more. They can all be read separately, or they can be read as all belonging to the same universe. I may, later, write a few stories that go in between the ones I’ve already written, but here they are in current chronological order. 

“A Light in the Darkness,” “Stay, “The Cross,” “Aubrey,” and “Irresistible.” 

I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thank you to those of you who have responded that you have some interest in the continuation of this series/universe. Thank you for reading and for letting me know you’re reading! It’s always more fun to share things than it is to feel like we’re creating something in a vacuum. I appreciate your involvement! 

I hope you enjoy this piece. Let me know what you think! 

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Mulder wasn’t sure that he was ever going to get used to seeing Scully completely lost in sleep. He sat, for a moment, very still and watched her. She was completely relaxed. She was sleeping, this morning, differently, even, than she normally slept when they were on a case. She was snoring quietly, and Mulder couldn’t help but smile to himself every time he heard the sound.

She was beautiful. And adorable. And everything that he could possibly think of to describe her as being.

And Mulder wasn’t certain that he’d fully accepted that it was, somehow, his right—bestowed upon him by Scully herself— to wake up next to her in the mornings. Although they still maintained their separate apartments, and although they sometimes slept in them, more and more often they were trading nights out at one place or another to share them together. Scully liked to snuggle, even though she hated to say it out loud that she craved his closeness. And even though he didn’t say it often, either, Mulder enjoyed snuggling with Scully every bit as much as she enjoyed it.

He didn’t know that she’d always been a snuggler, but she certainly was with him—and her desire to curl up with him seemed to be growing ever since they’d learned about the little alien she was growing.

Scully hadn’t really slept two nights before. She’d stayed awake almost all night, except for a cat nap or two that Mulder had convinced her to take while he’d held her in his arms. He couldn’t blame her. She’d been through something horrible. She was in shock and concussed. She’d been terrified that something might have caused them to lose the baby that they were only beginning to accept was really there. She hadn’t said it, but she’d been afraid to sleep—and that was why Mulder had simply silently held her during the hour, here or there, that she’d managed to sleep. 

Last night, though, Scully had made up for the sleep she’d missed by sleeping hard. Still, she’d be unhappy if she slept too late and felt like she’d missed the day. 

Mulder reached and pushed Scully’s hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. He watched her face, but she didn’t stir at all. He smiled to himself and leaned, pressing a kiss to her temple. She didn’t move. 

“Scully,” Mulder said quietly, putting his mouth close to her ear. “Scully,” he repeated, drawing it out. There was the slightest huff of air from her, but she didn’t wake entirely. “Dana, it’s time for you to wake up.” 

He saw the muscle movement as her mouth drew up, just barely, in a smile. She wiped it away, quickly, and rooted a little more deeply into her pillow.

“I thought we talked about that, Fox,” she challenged.

“You’re right, Scully, we did,” Mulder agreed. “Coffee’s made. Decaf. Do you want to try to get some breakfast in before the alien knows you’re up?” 

Scully groaned quietly, but she did at least peek open an eye, still swollen with sleep, and turn her head to look at Mulder. He didn’t tell her she was beautiful, even though he thought it. He tried to reserve how often he told her that—mostly because she usually rolled her eyes at him when he did tell her, but also because he wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t be a turn off to her to know just how often the thought flitted across his mind. 

“Toast?” Scully asked.

“We’ve got bread,” Mulder said. “We can have toast, if that’s what you want.” 

“Did we get butter?” Scully asked.

“And strawberry jam,” Mulder said. “I’ve been paying attention to what you eat and what you push off your plate like a cat.” 

She sat up on her elbows. She smiled and, this time, she didn’t immediately hide it from him. 

“I think I could eat toast,” she said. 

“And scrambled eggs,” Mulder said. “At least one. You need the protein.” 

“I’m not going to get used to you being my mother,” Scully said after Mulder stole a quick kiss and got up from the bed to start breakfast.

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“Did I cook your eggs wrong?” Mulder asked.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Scully said. “You’ve done everything right. But—I don’t want eggs, Mulder. Everything tastes…different. And I don’t like the way the eggs taste.” 

“Then you don’t eat the eggs,” Mulder said. Instead of trying to coax her to eat what she didn’t want, he put an extra triangle of buttered toast onto her plate. “The alien’s going to be up soon.” 

“I think that’s what’s wrong with the eggs,” Scully said, scrunching her nose up and grimacing slightly. “It’s already up.” 

Mulder reached a hand across the table and patted Scully’s arm. She smiled at him, and chewed through another bite of her toast. Mulder made a mental note that, despite her saying that she was already not feeling well, she seemed content to continue eating the toast. That might very well mean that, even on the worst mornings, he might be able to convince her to swallow down at least a few bites of food as long as he made sure that the food in question was toast.

“Mulder,” Scully said after a moment of smearing a bit more of the strawberry jam on the newly acquired bit of toast, “can I—talk to you?” 

Mulder smiled to himself. One of the main reasons for this trip was to give Scully the opportunity to talk about what she was feeling—something she’d already indicated that she desired to discuss with him at some point. 

“You can talk to me any time you want. You know that,” Mulder said. “I’m going to refresh my coffee. You want some more?” She shook her head. Mulder made his way to the coffee pot, refilled his mug, and returned to the table. Scully was clearly waiting for him to get settled before she said whatever it was that was on her mind. “Go head,” he pressed, in case she needed the encouragement. “Is this about—what you wanted to talk to me about before?”

“While I was in Washington, taking care of the autopsy, I saw my therapist,” Scully said. Mulder sat forward, arms on the table, and remained focused on her. Both of them knew the tricks, but it didn’t matter. They still worked, and he wanted her to know that he was focused, listening, and cared about everything she had to say. He wanted her to keep talking for as long as she felt the need. “I told her that I was feeling overwhelmed with the case. Every time I saw the bodies, I just…I almost panicked. I don’t normally feel that way. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t believe someone would do that, no matter how many horrible things I’ve seen before. It just struck me differently. And then, when I was doing the autopsy? I had a moment, Mulder, where I turned around and…this sounds so ridiculous.” 

She broke off, shaking her head, and Mulder patted her arm, sliding his hand down to take hers. 

“Go ahead, Scully,” he urged. He smiled at her, reassuringly, he hoped. “It’s me. You can tell me, no matter how ridiculous you might think it sounds to other people.” 

Scully nodded her head, but it still took her a moment to speak.

“I saw myself, Mulder. On the autopsy table. And I was dead. I was just lying there, exposed and dead and…waiting for someone to cut me open and record all the details of my death.” She shrugged her shoulders. “And then it was gone and the woman was back.”

Mulder nodded his understanding and held Scully’s hand in his. He wanted to be sure that he reacted in the right way. He knew that reacting wrongly, however that may be, could make Scully decide not to share her feelings and experiences with him in the future—and that felt like a lot of pressure.

“The murders would have been disturbing for anyone, Scully,” Mulder said. 

“They weren’t for you,” she said, with a bit of an ironic laugh.

“They were,” Mulder said. “I was more disturbed with every corpse we saw.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Scully said. 

“Neither did you,” Mulder said, shaking his head at her. “But if you need to hear it? Every single body—each passing hour? It made me feel more tense, Scully, because I started to think that this guy was close. He was hunting. And I didn’t know who he was hunting for, but I was terrified it might be you. Maybe some of that is what you were feeling. The experience would be different for you because you fell into the category of preferred victim for Pfaster.” 

Scully nodded.

“My therapist said that I might be feeling vulnerable because of the disappearance,” Scully said. “She suggested that…that I might be still working things out from that.” 

“You’ve jumped back into everything very quickly, Scully,” Mulder said. “You could have taken more time for your leave.”

“I need to work, Mulder,” Scully said. “I need to have something to occupy my mind or I’ll go crazy. If this is the kind of thing that I’m thinking and experiencing when my mind is busy, imagine how it would be if I just sat around idle all the time? I loved the time that you and I got to spend together while I was getting better, but…all those times when you were at work and I wasn’t? I couldn’t stand just sitting around the apartment that much with nothing to do.” 

Mulder nodded his understanding. 

“It’s OK,” he said. “Did your therapist say anything else?” 

“She said that, if I trust you, then I should talk to you about how I’m feeling.”

“She sounds like a smart woman. You do trust me, don’t you?” 

Scully smiled to herself.

“More than I trust anybody,” she said. “With my whole life. I told her that.” 

Mulder squeezed her hand in response. He hoped it communicated that he felt the same. There was nobody that he trusted in the same way that he trusted Scully. When he noticed that her eyes were beginning to leak clear droplets, he got up and quickly returned with tissue that he put in her hand. She thanked him with a breathed out “thanks,” but he didn’t draw attention to any of it, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. 

“She—uh—she also suggested that…that I might be feeling vulnerable because of…because of…the alien,” Scully said, unfolding one of the tissues that Mulder had crumpled in his hand when he’d ripped them free of the box. She brushed the wrinkles out of it before she used it, clearly needing something to do with her hands for a moment. 

“That doesn’t seem like a shot in the dark, Scully,” Mulder offered softly. “And anyone—any woman—would have to feel at least a little vulnerable to know that she was pregnant.” 

Scully just sniffled, wiped at her nose with the tissue, and nodded in response to Mulder’s words. He knew that they weren’t done talking about everything—there was so much that, truly, they had yet to even begin to discuss about the changes they were bound to see in their lives—but he also knew that he had to be careful just how much he pushed Scully over breakfast. There was time, after all, to discuss things and make decisions. They didn’t have to all be made before she’d digested her toast.

“Just—tell me one thing, Scully,” Mulder said. 

She looked at him, held his eyes a moment, and nodded her head. It was her sign that she would indulge him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked. “When you were feeling this way? When the bodies bothered you and you saw…the vision or hallucination or whatever? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Scully licked her lips, clearly thinking carefully about her response. 

“I didn’t want you to feel like you had to take care of me,” Scully said. “I didn’t want you to feel like you had to protect me from everything.”

Mulder laughed to himself, nervously. His own stomach churned, and he felt a little nauseous. It made him rethink his breakfast, which had been a little heavier and more substantial than that which Scully had consumed. He wondered if this was what she felt like every morning now that she had morning sickness with which to contend.

“I hate to tell you, Scully,” Mulder said, “but I do and I don’t feel those things.” She cocked an eyebrow at him in question. She didn’t have to say the words. He could look at her and know exactly what she was asking. “I know that you can take care of yourself. I know that—if we’re up against it, whatever it is, you’ve got my back. You’re protecting me as much as I’m protecting you. I know you don’t need me to protect you, Scully. You don’t need me to take care of you. You’re no damsel in distress. No more than I am, I guess. No more than anyone is. But on the other hand? I’m always going to feel like I need to take care of you. Or, not even need. Like I want to take care of you. I’m always going to feel like I need to protect you. That’s as much for me as it is for you.” 

“Because…” Scully said, but she left the word hanging.

“Because I lost you,” Mulder said. “Because I know what it feels like to lose you. And I never want to feel that again. Because I love you, Scully. And I want to care for you and protect you…and I have for a long time. But the most important thing I want, is for you to feel like you don’t have to hide things from me. I don’t want you to hide what you’re feeling and thinking.” 

“I was going to tell you,” Scully said. Her voice cracked slightly. “I planned to tell you everything. Even that I felt so…vulnerable. So much like…like I wanted to be protected, but I didn’t want you to have to protect me. And that doesn’t make any sense, Mulder.” 

“It makes perfect sense,” Mulder said. She tipped her head to the side and looked at him with something akin to exasperation. “OK—then it doesn’t even have to make sense, and it still makes sense to me.”

“I planned to tell you everything,” Scully said. “I really did. And then—Pfaster ran me off the road and…”

As soon as it was a clear sign that she wasn’t quite ready, just yet, with barely more than twenty-four hours between her and the events that had made her feel this way, to talk about everything, Mulder got to his feet. He pulled her up from her chair and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. 

“You don’t have to say anymore,” he offered, shushing her as he held her. 

“I love you,” she breathed out.

Mulder smiled to himself, and he squeezed his arms tighter around her for a second.

“I love you, too,” he said. “And whether you like it or not? I’m going to take care of you and I’m going to protect you. You might as well get used to it.” 

She pulled away from him. Her face was damp, but she was smirking at him. 

“Don’t you threaten me with love and protection, Mulder,” she warned. Mulder appreciated the smile that upturned the corner of her mouth against her best attempts to keep an entirely straight face.

“Come on, Scully,” Mulder said. “Let’s get dressed. Go for a walk. Get some fresh air. Put most of this behind us. Let’s—forget about the past for a couple of hours. What do you say? Maybe we switch gears? Leave off the macabre for a while and focus on the good? The future?”

Scully nodded her head. 

“Sounds good to me,” she said. “I just want to change my clothes and brush my teeth.” 

“I’m right behind you,” Mulder assured her.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Here we are, another little piece here. 

I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think! 

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What was originally supposed to be an easy walk around the surrounding area had turned into a mile-long jog. Mulder had talked Scully into a slow jog, at least, rather than the hard run she’d first seemed to aim for, by reminding her that her number one “prescription” for this long weekend was lots of rest, not exercise.

They’d cooled down after the jog by walking down to the town that was nearby and wandering through some of the quiet and quaint streets. They’d stopped in at a little shop that was overly-decorated with teapots, teacups, and other tea related items. Scully had immediately found a little china teacup with a cartoon alien on it that got her attention, and she’d bought it as a novelty item to remind them of the weekend. Mulder had also purchased a variety of tea that was supposed to be strawberry flavored, but he didn’t tell Scully that the reason for his selection was because he had a hunch that their alien might enjoy that particular flavor.

On the slow and easy walk back to the lake house, Scully had intertwined her fingers with Mulder’s, and he’d found himself smiling over how ridiculously wonderful such a simple thing could be. 

Back at the lake house, their few treasures tucked away in the kitchen, Mulder talked Scully into sharing the shower with him. 

“It’s going to be tight,” Scully said, assessing the situation in the bathroom, already sweaty and stripped down in anticipation of the shower. Mulder came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, and she hugged his arms in response.

“It always is,” he teased, leaning his mouth close to her ear. “But I always get you relaxed enough to make it work, Scully.” 

She’d scoffed at his teasing, and playfully pushed him away, but it didn’t stop her from welcoming him into her arms—and into her body—as soon as they’d both stepped into the shower. Just like he’d promised, they’d made it work, though it hadn’t gone without at least a little problem-solving effort from both of them.

The rest of the day they’d spent lounging around, much in keeping with the doctor’s orders for Scully, and Mulder had even convinced Scully to nap with him on the couch of the lake house. She’d been the one that had done the napping, though, and he’d mostly stayed awake holding her against him and thinking about everything she’d said that morning. 

She worried that everyone in the “boys’ club” was going to see her as somehow lesser than them because she’d come into the world without a penis. Mulder knew all about that concern for her and, he assumed, every other woman born into the world. He also knew that the concern was, at least in his experience, a particularly strong one in positions like theirs, where people tended to look at someone as small as Scully and assume that, somehow, she wasn’t “enough” for the job. 

The truth of the matter, though, was that Scully could hold her own in absolutely every sense of the phrase. Mulder had seen her match wits with the best of them, and she’d trained just as hard as anyone else had in order to meet the physical expectations of their career.

She felt vulnerable sometimes—and Mulder knew how hard it was for her to even admit that. Of course, she felt vulnerable, though. Vulnerability was one of those emotions that, sometimes, came with the job. Helplessness. That was another. Mulder could relate to both of them. He’d felt helpless when he’d lost her. He’d felt helpless when he was asked to give up on her because everyone else seemed to think it was the right thing to do—they had to move on. He’d felt helpless to see her mother display her headstone—a cruel, cold, stone declaration to the world that Dana Katherine Scully no longer existed. He’d felt helpless waiting for her to come out of the coma—wondering if she would.

He’d felt helpless, too, when he’d realized that Pfaster had her, and there was no way he could get the car safely to her location any faster than he’d been travelling. 

And he felt vulnerable every time he opened himself up to her and let her see who he was when he peeled back every piece of himself that he’d designed and perfected to show the outside world. He could trust Scully, though, with his vulnerability, and he wanted her to understand that she could always trust him with hers. In some ways, even, he wanted to see it; just a little of it. He appreciated those glimpses of the softest parts of her. 

She didn’t want him to feel like he had to protect her. It was a nice way of saying, perhaps, that she didn’t want to feel like a burden. Nobody wanted to feel like a burden. But the truth of the matter was that anyone that Mulder loved the way that he loved Scully could never, and would never, be a burden. The desire to protect her, though, and to care for her, came as naturally to him as breathing did these days. 

Whether she wanted it, or not, Mulder was going to be driven to protect her. It was only natural to protect the most important thing to you—and now, carrying the baby of which they’d only seen evidence on a screen, she’d somehow become even more precious.

When Scully woke from her nap, and affectionately and tenderly captured Mulder’s lips in a series of sweet kisses before she sleepily nuzzled his neck and tried to decide if she wanted to go back to sleep, Mulder had suggested that they go and check out the lake. It was far too cold for swimming, but they could at least check for signs of life. Mulder’s friend, after all, had a couple of fishing rods and they’d passed a bait shop in town.

They examined the lake, walking all the way around it, but neither of them was sure if they’d find any fish. They’d decided, though, that for better or worse they’d go and buy some bait the following day and sit out there for a while to see what might happen. 

They’d joined efforts to cook dinner, and Scully had put together a delicious salad and overloaded baked potatoes while Mulder had manned the grill and entertained her, through the open back door, with put-on bravado about a man’s place at the grill and a woman’s place in the kitchen.

Despite her declaration that she was going to throw his potato over the side of the porch for his comments, she didn’t do anything of the like. Instead, she served the food onto plates and Mulder helped her to set the table outside so that they could eat in the cool fresh air.

“You’re beautiful, Scully,” Mulder had offered while they were eating under the glow of the not-quite-as-picturesque-as-they-might-have-liked porch light. She smiled to herself and, as soon as she’d chewed through the bite of steak she was working on, she arched an eyebrow at him and licked her lips.

“And what’s that supposed to be, Mulder? Some kind of comment about how I’m eating my steak?” 

Mulder laughed to himself and shook his head. 

“Maybe I shouldn’t tease you as much as I do,” he admitted. “That’s what most women would call a compliment. You know—I don’t say it every time I think it, but I’ve thought you were beautiful at least two dozen times just today.” She looked pleased, and she settled into the compliment. Mulder couldn’t help it, even though he knew that he should fight the feeling. “Of course—I do think a woman who’s really in touch with her carnivorous side is an attractive thing. Sexy. Animalistic.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m kidding, Scully,” he promised.

“It is a good steak,” Scully said. 

“This is the best baked potato I’ve had in years,” Mulder offered. “I’m serious. I don’t know why we’re ordering out as much as we do.” 

Scully laughed to herself. 

“Because we don’t usually have a whole afternoon to dedicate to preparing dinner,” Scully responded. Mulder hummed his agreement. 

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said. “And I didn’t want to bring it up too soon, so if you’re not feeling up to talking about it…”

“Please, Mulder, I don’t want to talk about Pfaster. I just—want to leave that in the past. I’m OK, really, but I don’t want to keep rehashing what happened.” 

“This isn’t about Pfaster,” Mulder said. “It’s about the alien.” She nodded her head slightly. It was a timid acceptance of the topic of conversation. Mulder reminded himself that they were both still coming to terms with things, and not every problem needed a solution before they left the lake house. “We’ve agreed we both want it.” 

“You haven’t changed your mind,” Scully asked. Mulder thought he could see her blanche slightly in the dim light of the porch. He gave her a reassuring smile and chewed through a bite of salad. 

“I’m not changing my mind about anything,” he assured her. “But—you said yourself that we don’t usually have a whole evening to devote to preparing a meal. What are we going to do about work?” 

“What do you mean?” Scully asked.

“Are you going to start working less?” Mulder asked. “Transfer to a different role? A different department?” 

Her brows furrowed and her cheeks immediately went pink.

“And why can’t you work less, Mulder? Why can’t you transfer to a different department or take a different position?” 

Mulder held his hands up in mock surrender, the fork still in hand.

“I’m not saying that’s what you should do,” Mulder said. “I’m opening the door for discussion. I’m asking how do you envision us handling this?” 

Scully took a moment, but she reigned in her temper and relaxed back into her chair. She cut another piece of steak like she wasn’t intent on murdering the chunk of meat, and she chewed it calmly. 

“I’m not quitting my job,” she said. “There’s absolutely no reason that I can’t work until it’s almost time for the baby to be born. Not if there aren’t any complications.” 

“You know I’ll be happy to have you there, Scully,” Mulder said. “But sometimes our job is dangerous.” 

“Life is dangerous, Mulder,” Scully said. “I want a family, but I don’t want to just give up my job.” 

Mulder nodded his understanding. 

“Then you’ve got to at least promise me that—you’re going to be careful,” Mulder said. “And you’re going to be honest with me. Open. About how you feel and…even if you’re just feeling uncomfortable in a situation.” She eyed him, and he held her eyes. “You have to think about me a little bit, Scully. I’m going to be a nervous wreck when I’m worried about my partner—in every sense of the word—and our child at every turn. I got a taste of that…” He stopped himself. He didn’t want to be too detailed. Not when she’d asked him for a little time. “I got a taste of that already,” he said.

“I know,” Scully said, sounding entirely sincere. She reached her hand across and patted Mulder’s arm with affection. “And I’m sorry for that, Mulder. I really am. I know that must have been hard for you. And I’m not giving you a hard time. I want to keep my job. I want us to keep working together. But—I understand what you’re saying and I promise to be open with you, and to be careful and reasonable in absolutely everything we do.” 

“At least as much as the job allows,” Mulder supplied.

“That’s always the case for us,” Scully agreed. 

“What about when the baby comes?” Mulder asked. “What are we going to do?” 

Scully shrugged her shoulders. 

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Scully said. “I mean—I’m not even two months pregnant, Mulder. But—I suppose we’d find childcare.” 

“We travel more than we’re home,” Mulder said.

“We’ll take the baby with us,” Scully said. “Plenty of people do it.” 

Mulder laughed to himself.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Special Agent Fox Mulder. This is Special Agent Dana Scully. And this—this is our infant. Don’t mind him. He’s colicky.” 

“So, you want a boy,” Scully said, latching onto his words. “You said ‘he,’ Mulder.” 

“He. She. It really doesn’t matter to me. I guess it was just default. My point is—we’ve got to think about this, Scully.” 

“Maybe we do, but I don’t have all the answers tonight,” Scully said. “And I don’t want to be responsible for coming up with all the answers. You can suggest things too, and we can discuss them. We do this together, like everything else.” 

“Without you thinking I’m trying to force you into something?” 

“That open communication is going to have to work both ways, isn’t it?” Scully challenged. She sighed. “I don’t know how we’ll make it work. Not tonight. But we’ll make it work. We have to. Because—I’m not going to change my mind about keeping it, Mulder.” 

“That wasn’t even a card on the table,” Mulder assured her. “I don’t know, Scully, it might be kind of cute to just have him there in—in one of those little baby carrier things?” 

“I’m sure you’ll look adorable,” Scully said, raising an eyebrow in Mulder’s direction. He laughed to himself and worked on another bite of his own dinner.

“You’re right, Scully. I just might.” 

They didn’t have to solve all their problems in one long weekend. They didn’t have to leave the lake house with all the answers. At least, though, they were thinking about things. They were talking about things. That line of communication was open between them.

Mulder was certain, after all, that there wasn’t anything—nothing at all—that they couldn’t handle as long as they were dedicated to working together. 

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AN: I think this is the last piece to this installment. Let me know, though, if there’s something else here that you think needs to be explored or that you would like to be explored. I’ll be continuing with this universe, though, with the exploration of future episodes and some original little events/stories thrown in. (At least, according to my plans as they are now.)

I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think!


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